New Delhi: The special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) ​court on Wednesday issued a letter of request (LR) to the UK competent authority to execute a non bailable warrant issued against former IPL chairman Lalit Modi and bring him back to India.

Modi is wanted in India on charges of corruption. Earlier yesterday, the Enforcement Directorate had argued before the court in Mumbai and urged that a Letter of Request be sent to the UK to extradite Modi to India.

The Enforcement Directorate had said that they had not been able to execute the non-bailable warrant against Lalit Modi and thus have not been able to further the investigation.

Hiten Venegoankar, ED Counsel told IE that the application had been sent to the court and if the court allowed, it would be sent to the Ministry of External Affairs of India and then to the Foreign Ministry in the UK to be forwarded to a local court.

The plea was heard before PR Bhavake, Special Judge under the sections 57 and 59 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act along with Article 11(1)(a) & (d) of the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT). India and UK have had an operational MLAT since 1995.

As reported by IE, Venegaonkar argued in court and said that under Article 11, the two countries will offer the best measure of legal assistance and prosecution, which would be in relation to criminal offences. This includes the transferring of persons in custody for the purposes of assistance in the investigation or for providing evidence in legal proceedings. Modi is currently facing charges of having committed acts that were against the interests of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) with an intention to make “illegal gains”.